City of Fort Wayne unveils plan to prevent, end homelessness

Published: Mar. 9, 2023 at 7:17 AM EST

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – The City of Fort Wayne revealed Wednesday a strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness in the Summit City.

The plan, called “Everyone Home,” will evaluate the state of homelessness in the city. Officials say it serves as a guide by providing goals, strategies, and action steps to address the challenges of homelessness and prevention needs.

They say the plan is intended to address how to meet four important strategic goals.

The four goals are to:

Increase safe and affordable housing for Fort Wayne residents
Expand access to homeless emergency response services
Partner across Fort Wayne to build collective solutions
Prevent homelessness before it begins

“It’s going to take a lot of collective actions. Bringing landlords on board to understand that renters with maybe some government assistance are great renters. Maybe somewhere across the community that building affordable housing across the community is good…is a good practice. Housing is health care. Let’s get more affordable housing, so we can get families in safe decent affordable housing.”Community Development Administrator Jim Atz said.

Officials say that about 44% of renters spend 30% of their income on rent, whereas, 20% spend about half their income on rent.

Watch the video here.

https://www.21alivenews.com/2023/03/09/city-fort-wayne-unveils-plan-prevent-end-homelessness/